In this episode, Mark Thornton breaks down the political pressure from Trump, market demands for cheap money, and the Federal Reserve’s real fears: a collapsing dollar, rising inflation, and soaring long-term rates. Mark traces the history of interest rate manipulation, the precarious state of US debt, and why Chairman Powell may be clinging to high rates—not for the public good, but to save face before his 2026 exit. With the dollar weakening and deficits exploding, Mark explains why the next crisis could be just one rate cut away.

"Trump Is Wrong about Interest Rates" by Ryan McMaken (Radio Rothbard Podcast): https://mises.org/MI_129_A

"Will Fed Cut Rates By 3%? Is Massive Inflation Returning? Economist Steve Hanke Answers": https://mises.org/MI_129_B

"Federal Funds Effective Rate": https://mises.org/MI_129_C

"Nominal Broad U.S. Dollar Index": https://mises.org/MI_129_D

"Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 30-Year Constant Maturity, Quoted on an Investment Basis": https://mises.org/MI_129_E

"Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, June 17–18, 2025" (PDF): https://mises.org/MI_129_F

"US FOMC Meeting Minutes (June 17-18, 2025)" by Ksenia Bushmeneva: https://mises.org/MI_129_G

Register for the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, October 16–18: https://mises.org/ss25

Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

In the latest episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton unpacks a deceptively simple question and follows its answer deep into the heart of economic history and theory. Drawing on insights from Hayek, Cantillon, Menger, and even WWII prisoner-of-war camps, Mark explores how money actually emerged—not from the decrees of kings or bureaucrats, but from the spontaneous actions of everyday people solving real problems in a barter economy. Mark challenges the fable of state-created money and confronts the dangerous logic of Modern Monetary Theory. This is not just a history lesson—it's a blueprint for understanding inflation, fiat failure, and the path to sound money.

"Who Really Invented Bitcoin?" (Minor Issues, episode 128): https://mises.org/MI_128

An Essay on Economic Theory by Richard Cantillon (see Part 1, Chapter 17, "Metals and Money, and especially of Gold and Silver"): https://mises.org/MI_128_A

Register for the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, October 16–18: https://mises.org/ss25

Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

In this episode of Minor Issues, Mark Thornton revisits a prophetic 1970s address by Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek that laid the intellectual groundwork for Bitcoin. Delivered during the depths of stagflation, Hayek’s “International Money” lecture critiques central bank monopoly, exposes the failure of Keynesian inflationism, and calls for the denationalization of money. Mark unpacks how Hayek’s radical proposal for competing private currencies was decades ahead of its time, and why it matters more than ever in today’s age of government-managed inflation and crypto crackdowns.

Choice in Currency by F. A. Hayek (based on his address, "International Money"): https://mises.org/MI_127_A

The Denationalisation of Money by F. A. Hayek: https://mises.org/MI_127_B

"Hayek Predicting Bitcoin" (excerpted from the May 1, 1984, interview with James Blanchard at the University of Freiburg): https://mises.org/MI_127_C

"The Last Days of Satoshi: What Happened When Bitcoin’s Creator Disappeared" by Pete Rizzo (Bitcoin Magazine): https://mises.org/MI_127_D

"Bitcoin" (1440): https://mises.org/MI_127_E

Register for the 2025 Mises Institute Supporters Summit in Delray Beach, Florida, October 16–18: https://mises.org/ss25

Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues